theory of the four humours

• Four basic elements


  Fire, water, earth and air
• Four humours


  • Blood
  • Phlegm - the watery substance coughed up or sneezed out of the nose, or expelled in tears
  • Black bile - not one particular substance in the body, but probably referred to clotted blood, visible in excrement or vomit
  • Choler, or yellow bile - this appeared in pus or vomit
• The four humours were all created by digesting different foods
• There was a belief that all the humours must be balanced and equal
• If the mix of humours became unbalanced, you became ill
• Being careful to maintain a good balance of the humours was really important to preserving good health
• A combination of age, family traits and circumstances, such as the season in which someone was born, usually combined to make one or two of the humours stronger than the others
• Humours

  Elements linked to certain characteristics that physicians would look for when carrying out their diagnosis
• Person suffering from a fever

  Has a temperature, causing the skin to go hot and red because they had too much blood
• Person suffering from a cold

  Has too much phlegm, which was cold and wet, causing them to shiver and have excess phlegm run out of their nose
• Humours linked with the seasons

  • Winter (cold and wet, produces too much phlegm, causing coughs and colds)
  • Other seasons
• Star signs linked with humours

  • Capricorn
  • Aquarius
  • Pisces (linked with phlegm)
• Astrology was considered an important part of the Theory of the Four Humours, as the humours were connected with star signs and seasons, and each one had its own ruling planet
• Personality traits linked with humours

  • Choleric (quick tempered, argumentative)
  • Sanguine (optimistic, calm)
  • Melancholic (depressive, excess of black bile)
• The Theory of the Four Humours was created by Hippocrates


  5th century bce
• Humour


  Comes from the Greek word for fluid - humon
• Hippocrates


  • He was very careful to observe all the symptoms of his patients and record them
  • The Theory of the Four Humours fitted with what he saw
• Galen, a physician in Ancient Rome, liked the ideas of Hippocrates and developed them further


  2nd century ce
• Galen


  • He had been a physician in a gladiator school
  • He later became the personal physician of the Roman Emperor
  • He had lots of time to experiment, ponder philosophy and write
  • By the time he died, he left behind a very large body of work - more than 350 books